


Arrivals

by dragonofdispair



Series: Roads [23]
Category: Transformers (Bay Movies), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-05-01
Updated: 2008-05-01
Packaged: 2018-02-26 18:12:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2661578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragonofdispair/pseuds/dragonofdispair
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A couple of new Autobots make it to Earth</p>
            </blockquote>





	Arrivals

While he certainly wasn't happy about the long awaited arrival of the Decepticons,  Defense Secretary Keller couldn't deny that their actual presence was doing wonders for world relations. He signed his permission for units of the Canadian military to attend training with the Autobots on US soil and picked up the next piece of Autobot/Decepticon related paperwork. This one was a preliminary request from the Chinese for information, effective tactics and possible training against the Decepticons.

China and Russia especially had refocused their priorities since the Decepticons had come. Russia had been the location of the first Decepticon attack after they'd landed -- several bases of theirs had been obliterated by a tank-jet thing (Blitzwing, according to the Autobots). And China was apparently a favored target for three brightly-colored F-22s no one could mistake as American.

Keller regarded the proposal. Information and effective tactics weren't any sort of problem. The president himself had made it clear that all a foreign government needed to do was ask for them. But training... that meant training with the Autobots. Optimus Prime would insist and as the leader of what was effectively an autonomous government, the US had no real power to tell him they couldn't help the Chinese -- especially against the Decepticons. But that would mean either getting the Autobots to China or allowing Chinese soldiers into the US...

His phone rang and he happily abandoned his contemplations of US-Chinese relations to answer, "Defense Secretary Keller."

"This is Optimus Prime." It was no longer surprising when the Autobot leader bypassed the layers of secretaries that were supposed to be between him and outside calls.

"What can I do for you, Prime?"

"We've picked up the signals of two Autobots approaching Earth. One of them is damaged and cannot alter his trajectory. I would like your military to be present in case they require assistance."

"Where?"

Prime listed the coordinates and automatically Keller typed them in to see what was nearby. Instantly he saw why Prime had asked for help. "That's in the middle of the Pacific Ocean." And few transformers -- Autobot or Decepticon -- could swim.

"Yes," was Prime's response. He added something in Cybertronian and continued, "says he can keep his comrade from crashing into the ocean, but he cannot carry" another burst of Cybertronian "for very long."

From the context, Keller reasoned that the alien words were the names of the two approaching Autobots. One of the footnotes in one of Dr. Jackson's reports had said that the Autobots chose the English equivalents of their own names and the Autobots already here wouldn't refer to them in English until they did.

Prime was silent as Keller entered searches into his desk computer and scrolled through results. "The _USS_ _Hornet_ should have just finished refueling at Pearl Harbor. I can override their orders and have them at those coordinates in about a day. Will that be soon enough?"

"It should. It will have to be. I will contact" Cybertronian static. "He and his comrade are fliers and may try and meet your ship along the way."

"I'll be sure they know."

"Thank you."

"Of course Prime."

Fliers, huh? Keller drafted the _Hornet_ 's new orders, tacked on his personal authorization and sent them. When he was done he idly pull up the list of aircraft assigned to that particular carrier. Mostly it looked like F/A-18s and some F-22s. There were a few Ospreys for rescue and -- that was interesting...

Fliers would certainly make this request from China easier to deal with. He tacked a suggestion onto the paperwork and filed the relevant portions to be forwarded to Prime.

 

888

 

Their new orders had been very irregular but had come directly from the Secretary of Defense so they weren't to be questioned. SecDef had also said "immediately" so the _Hornet_ 's commanders had done their very best to be en route "yesterday". The orders had been pretty simple -- self explanatory even: get to these coordinates, now. Be prepared to assist two incoming Giant Alien Robots, up to and including having 'copters ready to pull them out of the drink. Also be prepared to launch jets to defend against enemy Giant Alien Robots who might be looking to pick off the two newcomers.

Oh, and by the way, Lieutenant Commander Rossio thought to himself somewhat sarcastically, the entire crew has now been cleared to know about the Giant Alien Robots -- make sure no one panics.

Not that he saw anyone panicking -- openly. But there were a lot of wide eyes and shaky hands. His own among them. The thought gave him the willies. Too bad he was on duty -- he could use a drink.

Petty Officer Rose's still wasn't exactly legal but no one had done anything about it yet.

But they were expecting action within a day, so Rose's homemade jet fuel was officially -- official as applied to something that didn't exist -- off limits.

By the second turnover though it looked like most of the Oh-My-God-are-you-serious?-Aliens! inspired jitters had been brought under control. Some joker had even dug out a copy of "Independence Day" to play in one of the rec rooms. Rossio had peeked in briefly, but left before he was seen. He wasn't in the mood.

Instead he made his way to the aircraft hanger. The place was crawling with technicians making sure the various aircraft were ready to deploy. Especially the HV-22B Ospreys, since orders had very specifically specified that if the aliens landed in the water, they were to be fished out sooner than ASAP. But the jets weren't being neglected -- if these "Decepticons" showed up to pick off the friendlies, they'd need the jets in the air. He moved out of the techies' way and out onto the observation deck in the back.

It was kinda a nice night. The phosphorescence of various plankton disturbed by the carrier's wake was always fascinating to look at. As was the reflection of the _Hornet_ 's lights off the water. Too bad those same lights made it difficult to see the stars -- this far out to sea they would otherwise be spectacular. The lights washed out all but the brightest.

It wasn't until he saw the second shooting star, exactly mirroring the course of the first, that he realized what spotting the meteors meant.

"Shit!" He lunged for the intercom and dialed the bridge. "I've spotted a pair of meteors -- think our guests are dropping in early."

The intercom had barely switched off before the scramble alarm blared across the carrier. Rossio was already running for his post in the air control tower.

"Holy mother-fucking shit!" He'd just gotten to the flight deck when the first meteor hit the water. It felt like a couple dozen torpedoes exploding off the port side. And being on the deck meant he had a good view of the alien when it pulled itself out of the water, hovering for a moment.

"Son of a bitch." That thing was huge. Brass certainly wasn't kidding when they called those things Giant. The first Ospreys taking off jolted Rossio out of his daze and he continued his dash to his post.

The control tower had an even better view. The second "meteor" was coming down closer to the _Hornet_ than the first had. Lt. Rossio could see that it definitely wasn't made of rock even before it unfolded into a vaguely humanoid shape like its companion. Its decent slowed as it apparently tried to hover, but it was still going to hit the water.

By now the airspace around the _Hornet_ was thick with craft -- Ospreys hovering as close to the aliens as their pilots dared, Super Hornets and Raptors circling, on the lookout for hostiles. Hell, even the new Lightning IIs had launched. And Rossio was busy making sure none of them crashed into each other. But not so busy he didn't see the first alien dart from the side, sending the Ospreys scattering, to catch the second. Both hit the water, then came up again, one identical silver form carrying the other.

For long minutes the two aliens just hovered and stared at the surrounding aircraft. Then: "This is Autobot designates Fireflight and Air Raid in search of our leader Optimus Prime." The voice that crackled over every communication channel was young, male, and spoke English.

2IC's voice answered. "This is the _USS_ _Hornet_ and we're to give you a ride to the mainland."

"Good. 'Cause I wasn't looking forward to dragging 'Flight's aft all that way." This voice was a bit deeper and brash where the other had been a bit cautious.

"Air Raid, be polite."

Lt. Rossio noticed that now that the aliens were here and talking, the wide eyes and shaking hands had reappeared around the control room. Including his own.

"Welcome to Earth."

"Whatever."

 

888

 

The alien's -- Air Raid's -- attitude didn't really improve as the _Hornet_ 's crew and pilots got them settled on the fight deck and got all the aircraft recalled and stowed, but eventually his comrade -- Fireflight -- got him to stop making his comments on an open channel. And for the first day or so, they mostly kept themselves out of way with Air Raid tinkering with something in Fireflight's leg. Though the bickering was hard to miss.

"Slaggitall 'Flight. The clutter in this system is dangerous enough without you chasing comets just 'cause they sparkle."

"Says the glitch that somehow managed to get it into his fragged processor that it's a good idea to start ramming seekers like he'd changed his name to Ramjet."

"Hey! It fragging works -- unlike your it's-sparkly-can-I-touch-it attitude."

"Works!? Your CPU must have been dropped during your construction -- every time you run yourself into a Decepti-jet's fuselage, you knock yourself silly -- er, silly-er -- you slag heap of wasted circuitry."

"Yeah? You're higher than a seeker in orbit and twice as loony even without a medical excuse, so stick a crankshaft up your afterburner and rotate, slagsucker."

"I've heard better comebacks from an arc welder, you scrapheap reject."

And so on. And they didn't seem to care that almost everyone on the flight deck, in the hanger and in the communications tower could hear them.

It was worse once Fireflight was apparently patched up. Arguments escalated into fights that sent humans scurrying for safety and usually ended with the two of them pulling themselves out of the ocean.

"Give you 20 to 1 odds those two are brothers." Rossio heard one mechanic mutter to another, just as the static-y yell that signaled either Air Raid or Fireflight losing his temper echoed down into the hanger. The yell was followed first by a loud metal-on-metal clang! then the lower (but still loud) scrapes, clangs, and half-articulate insults of another fight.

"Sucker's bet." Muttered the second mechanic. 

"Do alien robots even have brothers?" Chimed in a third.

At least they were usually quiet during mid watch, he reflected later, once again watching the ripples of greenish light stirred up by the _Hornet_ 's wake.

Clatter-crash!

"Primus-fraggit Raid! Be careful."

"Look who's talking Mister-Two-Left-Wings."

"Take that back!"

"Not on your spark!" Crash! "Hey!"

Usually they were quiet during mid watch. The voices were coming from inside the hanger rather than the flight deck, so Rossio turned to see what was going on. Sure enough there were the aliens, crouched in the loading area, in the beginnings of yet another fight.

"Hey!" He shouted and two sets of blue lights focused on him. "You break it you buy it, flyboys. What the Hell are you doing down here?"

Lieutenant Rossio didn't consider himself any sort of expert in Alien Robot body language, but he could have sworn they both looked a bit sheepish. The two robots looked exactly the same, all shiny but slightly scorched chrome, but he was pretty sure the one that reclaimed his sense of arrogance first was Air Raid.

Fireflight though was the one who answered. "We're bored out of our processors and this slagger," here he shoved Air Raid lightly, who shoved back and Rossio thought he'd have to derail another fight but Fireflight just continued talking, "finally pronounced me fit to fly -- not that he has more than the standard emergency medical programing --"

"It's not like I need more than that to tell you not to fly while I'm still picking bits of space rock out of your struts, slagger."

"-- so we thought we'd come down and see what was available."

Huh?

After a moment, Air Raid snickered. "I think you broke its processor, 'Flight. Whatever. What do you think of that one?" He pointed tot he nearest Raptor.

"I think that's what the Decepti-jets have -- so unless you want someone to bring up that crush you had on" he made a static-y buzz sound, "you should pick something else. Personally I like that one." Fireflight gestured to a Super Hornet.

Rossio just stood there as Air Raid eyed the jet critically and answered. "That was almost forty vorns ago -- I was a sparkling! And you would -- it's a bomber and you like those. Feel free, but I'd like something faster and that's" he pointed to the Raptor again, "the only other choice."

"What about those?" A silver hand flicked to the four Lightning IIs.

Air Raid's eye-light-things followed the gesture to the indicated aircraft and lit brighter. "Awesome! Those things are wicked cool."

Rossio had just managed to gather his thoughts back into coherency and was just about to demand that the two aliens tell him what the fucking Hell was going on, when something happened.

It started with just some clicking and whirring, then the two robots shifted and folded and collapsed in ways that twisted Rossio's brain into knots until the two robots were replaced by a black and white F-35C Lightning II with a red flame decal and a red and white F/A-18/F Super Hornet with black flames.

Then the two planes unfolded back into robots. The robots looked different though. Before they had just been chrome support struts and circuitry, now they were covered by colored armor panels. As soon as the transformations were complete they made their way back onto the flight deck. Rossio heard Air Raid's "C'mon -- let's get some flight time in while there aren't any buildings for you to crash into." The statement was followed by the roar of two jets taking off.

"Shit!" The alarms started going off and Rossio ran to the nearest intercom. "Stand down -- those are our two friendlies."

Two friendlies who were shaping up to be more trouble than enemy fire.

 

fini


End file.
